Properly Real
by TheNearlyImpossibleGirl
Summary: Oswin Oswald fic. Set a day before AotD


T_he woman hurriedly climbed down the wire ladder, allowing herself to calm a little as she heard the banging, coming from her ship, above her get quieter. What had happened to the crew terrified her, she'd only just gotten out in time, and she was still shaking. Struggling a bit with her short dress, she was relieved to reach the end of her tedious journey down the ladder and to find a tunnel in front of her. Fixing the rose in her coffee coloured hair, she swallowed nervously and pulled out a small torch from her silver belt and flicked it on, giving her a better look at her gloomy surrounding._

_There was only thing that looked remotely new around her, that being the ladder she had just climbed down. The metal walls were dripping forming small puddles, she guessed was melted snow, that had made themselves comfortable on the harsh, dirty concrete floor. Cracked bits of metal lay rusting on the floor, chains in coils and wire poking out of the walls sparking occasionally, giving her surroundings and eerie vibe. The shadows cast from her torch wasn't helping the feeling._

_The brunette shivered, wishing that her dress wasn't so short and had sleeves, not quite sure if it was from temperature or her surroundings; she suspected the latter. Advancing slowly, the torch flicked around the cramped tunnel, seeing if there was a side passage or door. The walls remained solid and clear of any sort of passage, which made the small brunette lose heart. She pressed on nonetheless, determined to get help or at least find a way out._

_Progressing the seemingly endless corridor, her torch light flicked out at the walls around her, desperate to find something, anything, that even closely resembled human life. Alien life even. She just needed some form of contact to stop her from going insane. After what seemed like hours of walking, which she guessed to only be around 5 minutes, the claustrophobic tunnel abruptly ended into a large room. The room had the same look as the tunnel: puddles, wire, chain, but there seemed to be fine layer of dust on covering the ground, which the made the brunette a tiny bit nervous. Flicking the torch around the walls, she discovered that it branched into several more narrow tunnels, with much the same layout as everything seemed to have in this dank place._

_She scanned the tunnels as she walked past them, and inside one of them caught her eye. There was a shadow in one of them, the object casting it just obscured by the bend in the tunnel's direction. The first thought in her mind was that it was something, or someone, that could help her and her crew mates. But the rational part of her brain said that it could be dangerous, and approaching probably wasn't the smartest thing to do. But this something might be able to help her, countered the other part of her mind. Stepping out of the entrance to the tunnel she flopped against the wall, sighing. She had to make a choice soon, otherwise she could be stuck wondering the corridors for the rest of her days._

_After letting the battle wage on for a few moments, the Junior Entertainment Manager made up her mind. Favouring the well-being of her crew mates over caution, she ventured down the path she'd seen the shadow in. The object that had been casting the shadow had gone, which was terribly inconvenient. She frowned, but kept walking, determined to find out where its owner had gotten to. After walking around the twisted tunnel, stepping over the various bits of debris, she found another shadow, in more or less the same position as the first: just around the bend. Throwing caution to the wind, she walked towards the shadow._

_"Hello? Can you help me? My ship crashed and I need to find a way to help my friends on board. I don't suppose you cou-"_

_Upon finding who the shadow belonged to, the brunette stopped dead, words frozen in her mouth. Before her sat a Dalek. The stuff that nightmares where made of. She didn't move, although she knew that metal monster knew she was there; but oddly enough it didn't move. For a minute she just stood there, but the Dalek didn't so much as swing its eye stalk towards her, it didn't even light up. Almost as if it was... Dead. It couldn't be dead, could it? She stepped towards it, flicking the torch light at its eye stalk. When the Dalek didn't respond, she couldn't help but let out a laugh. It really was dead; just a empty shell._

_"No so tough, now are we?" She giggled, turning back to walk along the corridor. If that Dalek had been dead, then it made sense that there was someone here that had killed it; Daleks don't just die, someone killed it, and she knew whoever it was would be able to help her crew._

_The harsh sound of metal moving across the ground snapped the brunette out her thoughts. Terrified, she turned around, expecting the Dalek to be waving its plunger at her, but there was nothing. Sighing, she discovered that she has just kicked a bit of metal, and continued._

_Dead end._

_After walking for so long, she was rewarded with a dead end? It made the woman want to pull her hair out. Grumbling, she turned around and started to walk back, hoping that another one of the corridors would like her and help her. After a while, she saw a light just poking out of the darkness. She didn't think anything of it, it was probably just a loose wire or something. But she stopped, only to fiddle with the torch whose light had been dimming for a while now. What she didn't see was the light getting closer to her, and it was too late to escape when she looked up. A Dalek broke out of the shadows causing the Junior Entertainment Manager to scream._

_"IDENTIFY YOURSELF," the Dalek screeched at her, pushing her against the wall with it's plunger._

_"Oswin Oswald," she stammered, terror-stricken, "Junior Entertainment Manager on starliner Alaska."_

_"TARGET IDENTIFIED. THREAT LEVEL: LOW. HIGH IQ. SHE WILL BE CONVERTED."_

_Converted? She didn't like the sound of that at all. Complying with the Daleks orders, she allowed herself to be guided along the corridor until they reached the main cavern-like room. To her horror, there were several Dalek in the room that rushed to her and forced her down another tunnel until they reached some sort of machine._

_"What's that?" The brunette asked weakly, looking the machine over. Wires weaved in and out in different places in the contraption, all held in by twisted pieces of metal, and in the middle of it was a wire cage that looked big enough for a human to stand in. It fell into place in her head before a Dalek could respond._

_"YOU ARE INTELLIGENT ENOUGH TO BE A DALEK. YOU WILL BE CONVERTED." Its metal voice wasn't heard by the human they had captured. The human wasn't even aware of anything as they pushed her into the cage, she was still coming to terms with that was about to happen._

_"No..." she whispered, and then screamed, "No! You can't do this!" Her body wasn't complying as she tried to struggle, all she could do was look around and use her mouth. "I'm human! I will not become a Dalek!" Tears had started to fall from eyes, she couldn't, she wouldn't, become a Dalek._

_"YOU WILL BECOME A DALEK. LET THE CONVERSION COMMENCE."_

_"No! No! You can't do this! I am not a Dalek, I am human! I am human!"_

**A/N**

**Hey everyone! Cheers for reading, it means so much! This isn't where the story ends, there will be more. I'm not going to say what happens because I don't want to spoil anything. ;) So, again, cheers for reading! :D**

**-TNIG**


End file.
